


A Family Banquet

by Garchomp445



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: F/F, Fluff, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-19 10:16:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13121661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Garchomp445/pseuds/Garchomp445
Summary: After they arrest the corrupt owners of a manor, Lissa and Maribelle invite some of their family to help them celebrate with the staff. Inigo, Brady, and Gaius had just performed at a Themis-wide talent competition, and recount the stories that brought them here. Even after the war, they continue to have adventure after adventure.Written for the FE Holiday exchange, as a gift to Rikae at "http://avesmonster.tumblr.com/"! I hope you enjoy it!





	A Family Banquet

 

The large, oaken doors swing open, and a lone, exaggerated gasp comes from the watching crowd. Owain, draped in dark, glistening purple robes, steps to the front and begins talking,

“Lissa and Maribelle! We shall see to it that your efforts do not go unrewarded!” As he brings a fist to the sky and clutches his cloak together, someone sighs from behind him, “After all, they fought for every brick and nail! Every torsion and spindle! Every rat and candlestick! Nay, their sacrifice is boundless!”

“Haha, yeah, so true!”

Inigo lets out a nervous laugh and tries to distract from Owain’s display, but Gaius shouts from the back,

“Hey, did you just say that Princess and Twinkles had to  _ fight _ for this manor?” He motions with his hands, “More info, please?”

“But of course!” Owain grabs one of the standing candelabras and pulls it to his face, “You have requested from me the grandest of tales!”

Maribelle takes one stride, snatches the candelabra from him, and states,

“Shall we make ourselves more comfortable in the banqueting hall?” She punctuates her words with a frightening glower at Owain, “Perhaps those  _ involved _ in the story could do the telling.”

Owain stammers, “O-of course!” Inigo takes his shoulder, and they walk in behind Lissa and Maribelle. Brady, absent until now, files in just after Owain and Inigo, and whispers to the couple,

“Uh, while you two were doin’ your thing out here,” Inigo winces, “I was checkin’ on the food. They’ve prepared some good eats.”

“I’m just lucky we’re here for such a grand meal!” Inigo smiles, then narrows his eyes a little, “But, what did you think of Owain’s impromptu performance?”

Brady nods, and speaks a little bit too loud, “It’s like  _ Owain _ was tryna outperform  _ us _ .”

Owain puts a hand up to his mouth with a gasp, and says,

“Why! I never!”

Inigo takes Owain’s shoulder, and shakes his head sadly, “Brady, you may have a point. Our performance was absolutely incredible.” He takes a shaky step back, then puts his right hand in front of his face, in imitation of Owain’s dramatics, and stammers, “But Owain and I share in the performance of life!” He actually grips his face, and loses eye contact with his boyfriend and brother-in-law, “Uh, and yeah, you know!”

Owain grabs Inigo by his shoulders, “So true is your passion! Our love shines brighter than even the greatest performance!”

Inigo rolls his eyes, and stage-whispers to Owain, “See? I’m really just performing with Brady because he’s your brother.” He lets out an airy chuckle, and Owain gasps with indignation.

“Even the  _ lowest _ of curs would never do such a thing!” He turns to face Brady, “You are far more than Inigo implies!”

Brady sniffles to himself, “He- he’s only sayin’ that… to make Owain feel better!” He wipes his face dramatically, then lets out a loud guffaw as Inigo and Owain chuckle and smirk respectively. Owain immediately steps forward to pull a chair out for Inigo, who blushes and takes it instantly. Brady says,

“You two are gross. I’m sittin’ as far away as I can.”

The table is faux gold like much of the rest of the manor, and laden with sumptuous dishes. In fact, the platters are overfilled. Entire wheels of cheese sit on the table, along with meats drowned in gravy and sauce, heads of broccoli slathered with cheese, salted cauliflower, hastily smashed potatoes, and three different kinds of cake. Lissa has already eaten a slice, and is serving herself another. Maribelle swoops in to stop her, and puts her seat right next to Lissa’s at the head of the table. There are too many chairs, too, several plain wooden folding chairs are interspersed among the large, gilded oak chairs, and the servants who prepared the meal taking their own seats. Olivia, sitting with Gaius near the back of the table, greets them,

“Hello! Thank you so much for the meal!”

The lean, angular head chef smirks before taking a seat with the rest of the ex-staff, and says,

“Are you two royalty as well? Having the princess of Ylisse personally take over the manor was shocking enough.”

“Oh, no, I’m just a dancer from Ferox! No one special at all.” Olivia hides her face with her hand, and is secretly relieved that the citizens of Themis seem unable to recognize them. It certainly complicates her performances when her audience knows that she’s a war hero.

“And I’m the one who taught Maribelle to steal stuff from your manor.” Gaius smiles and leans back in his chair, “Again, just a pair of common folk! Don’t even pay us any mind!”

Olivia giggles, “Actually, you’re a dancer too now, aren’t you?”

Gaius flinches, but the chef, and a few of the other staff look interested now. One of the kids, wearing an actual, golden crown, shouts,

“Yeah! As the new queen of the mansion, I order you to dance for us!”

He says, “Oh gods, uh, first things first kid, no,” Gaius fishes through his cloak, and takes out about ten colourful suckers, then steps over, and with a bow, says, “and would your majesty graciously accept this bribe?”

The kid’s eyes light up, and she takes all ten of them immediately. Another kid looks put out, so Gaius heads over with a paper-wrapped chunk of fudge. He says,

“So I’m only  _ technically _ a dancer, really. Olivia, the pink-haired beauty over there,” He points to his wife, “Is the best dancer in all of existence, and I stole just a  _ little _ bit of talent for, guess what, a talent night.”

Olivia pulls out his chair as he sits back down,

“Don’t sell yourself short!”

“Oh yeah don’t worry, I bribed those kids with like a hundred gold piece’s worth of candy.”

Some of the adults laugh, and everyone starts passing around the sumptuous dishes. After just a few seconds of eating and small talk, Owain stands up, and clinks his glass with his fork violently, making a huge rattling noise. He shouts,

“Thank you all for attending this, the conquering of a castle! The end of an unjust reign! And the triumph of my mothers, Princess Lissa and Magistrate Maribelle!” He bows and almost lets his cape drop onto his food. Inigo nearly stands up, and keeps one hand just above Owain’s meat and sauce covered plate.

“Now that the introductions are over,” Maribelle stands up, Lissa close behind her, “I will announce what will be done with the manor staff-”

Owain interrupts, “And tell the story you promised from before?” He goes back upright, purses his hands together in fake prayer, and smiles from ear to ear. Lissa brightens up as well, but Maribelle says,

“I don’t recall telling you that  _ specifically _ .”

Both Lissa and Owain groan, exaggeratedly holding their chest and face respectively. Lissa whines,

“Come on! Maribelle, you did all the cool parts! I just sat in a room and talked for, like, an hour!”

Owain turns to the rest of the table with a huge grin, and starts chanting, “Give us a story! Give us a story!” No one else joins in, but Maribelle concedes with a sigh, and motions for Lissa and Owain to sit back down. She says,

“While I am a less skilled storyteller than Owain, I shall do my best to unnecessarily romanticize relatively mundane events. Allow me to start by describing the exterior of the mansion as if it were a metaphor for the days’ events.

“The mansion was black with gold trim, an obvious nod to plegian architecture that more than likely served only as a vehicle to distribute the blame. In truth, the activities of this particular family were totally unrelated to the westernmost country, and involved a great deal more embezzling and underground shipping than slightly obfuscated bandit raids.”

Maribelle notes that most of the table had stopped paying attention. She hadn’t even gotten to describing the paper trail that had led her to this conclusion, and Owain already had his hands steepled in concentration. He says,

“Perhaps you could begin when you first slipped away from Lissa, and began exploration by yourself?”

“I beg your pardon, Owain, but isn’t it important to set up the background of any good story?”

Owain practically leaps up, flashing his cape before him, and ruining Inigo’s efforts to keep his cape out of any gravy. He opens his mouth, but is interrupted by Brady,

“Ma, we already know all that. That’s why we’re here.”

Maribelle rolls her eyes, and says, “You are correct. I concede, and shall tell you the enrapturing tale of how I walked through a hallway and rifled through a desk. For the record, Lissa, I was only gone for a scant half-hour.”

“Well, it doesn’t take me long to miss you!” Lissa grabs Maribelle’s hand, and the latter glares into the middle distance, easily defeating Lissa’s embarrassment attempt. She doesn’t let go of Lissa’s hand. Maribelle begins a proper oration, standing up straight, head back slightly, and smiles at the five kids, such as her barely-grown son and son-in-law. She says,

“I was relieved of Lissa’s company through a distraction, and vanished into a closet. From there, I used one of the skills I learned from Gaius: Listening. Once I had determined that Lissa and the manor’s erstwhile owners had proceeded into the lounge for tea, I exited the closet. With the main stairwell unguarded, I made my way up the stairs naturally; as I was already dressed as a member of the help, it would not be difficult to blend in with its inhabitants.

“I kept my head down and away from any passers-by, and rifled through every room I could. Once I arrived at the bedroom, the real challenge began.” Maribelle puts a hand up for emphasis, “There were  _ three _ locked objects. Gaius  _ had _ actually taught me a few things, and how to pick a lock was chief among them. I started with the main safe, a large, metal thing, but even after breaking part of Gaius’ kit, I found nothing of interest inside. Only a bejeweled crown.” The crowned kid beams at the rest of the table, pointing at her crown, “In the closet I found a few clothes, but in the desk, oh, the desk, I found an extremely difficult lock. I wasted the majority of my time on that accursed desk, fiddling, fidgeting, and waiting for each pin to click into place. Then, on what must’ve been my seventieth pass, I found something most curious underneath the desk.”

Maribelle is leaning over the table now, making wide motions with her hands, and almost everyone is paying close attention. She smiles,

“It was a  _ second lock _ . It seemed as though this desk required two simultaneous keys to unlatch itself, an impossible feat to unlock for someone with but one one set of hands. I seethed with frustration, all that effort and work had brought me to this end? Gaius’ skills were not the only tools I brought with me, no, I also brought a myriad of spell tomes, although I needed but two.

“I channeled the magical energy within the first tome to light the front of the desk ablaze. I then waited for the structural integrity of the drawer to evaporate before extinguishing the fire with a wind tone. It was an exceedingly simple maneuver, but it enabled me to access every file, box, and moth within the drawer. I spent the rest of the time sorting files and documents, an adventure which I doubt,” She glares at her son with a smile, “Owain would like to hear of.”

Owain begins raucous clapping, and the children at the end of the table join in belatedly and for just a few short claps. He says,

“That was far more interesting than simply walking up a corridor! Truly, your ingenious solutions are unparalleled!”

Maribelle sits back down, and Lissa immediately says,

“Yeah! That was great!”

Inigo pokes Owain, and says, “Wow, if you ask for a story too often, your mom’ll get even better than you.”

“Hey! My persona is unable to be copied!” Owain smiles slightly, then stands up, sans his cape, and says,

“In fact, Inigo,” He puts a hand up to his face, “I am far more worried about-” He takes a quick glance around his person, “Uh, actually, where my cape went?”

“Ya dipped it in gravy, so Inigo took it off. What were you sayin’?”

Owain flashes his boyfriend a bright smile, “Thanks! Anyway, your position as a dancer is under more threat from…” Owain draws in closer, then stage-whispers, “Your own father!”

Gaius raises a hand, “Actually, I’m retiring from dance after today. Sorry, kid-in-law.”

“Thus, an unstable thread of fate was resolved peacefully. Truly, we are blessed to have such upstanding and stupendous people in our presence!”

Maribelle takes the brief silence to clap her hands together, and states,

“Since all of Owain’s business seems to be settled, we must discuss the employment possibilities and wealth redistribution-” Both children and most of Maribelle’s family start leaving the table, “-Lissa, I’m sorry dear, but you have to stay,”

“Aww!”

“As I was saying, we have much to discuss surrounding the manor’s former employees.”

She outlines her proposal as Olivia, Gaius, Brady, Owain, Inigo, and two kids explore the manor.


End file.
